The Propinquity Postulate
by Kayka
Summary: Assorted Sheldon-centric and Penny-centric drabbles for a Shenny story that never quite came to fruition. All set within the same universe and arranged to tell a full tale of sorts. Mostly funny, cute, and fluffy.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Many worlds interpretation + Schrödinger's cat paradox= In an infinite number of universes, I am a television mogul. Though, unfortunately, that is not true in this one.

**A/N:** What there is of this story has been rotting on my hard drive for over a year because I could never come up with a plot that held my interest long enough to tie all the assorted bits I wrote together into a proper Shenny story. I will be editing and posting what I've already written mainly because it seems a shame to have invested time in something and not share it. After I run out of prewritten material, I've been toying with the idea of writing a short one-shot to give this some semblance of completion. I humbly present to you the story that never was.

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**The Propinquity Postulate of Love:** The assumption that given: time + proximity = inevitability.

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_November 1981, East Texas_

"Thanks for taking him for the weekend, Mama. Between Missy's tantrums and Junior's new bug collection infesting the house, it's a nightmare. And this little feller's got me at my wit's end taking everything apart."

"Now, don't go telling me my little Moon Pie's been being a troublemaker," said Meemaw, looking down at the toddler with the mildest of admonition. The boy giggled shyly and burrowed his little head into her shoulder. After a moment, she continued to Mary, "It's a common phase, especially for boys. Don't worry about it, and he'll find something all new to get into soon."

"Well," admitted Mary, "It ain't so much that he's taking stuff apart that's worrying me- Lord knows that when Junior was his age, we couldn't keep an intact lamp in the house. It's just- and I wounldn't've believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes- everything Shelly's been taking apart, he's been _puttin' back together_."

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**A/N:** There is something of a method to my madness here. You can typically expect the order to be Little Sheldon, Little Penny, adult Sheldon and/or Penny, and repeat until I run out. Also note that these were written a long time ago and may not necessarily be canon compliant after season three.


	2. Chapter 2

_September 1991, Nebraska_

Glancing around the playground, Penny spotted Matt hiding on the other side of the swings. Sneaking up on him from behind, she all but tackled him.

"You're it!" she exclaimed to the startled boy before taking off in the other direction at top speed.

Penny loved playing tag, or Shark Attack as they were calling today's game, even though she was the only girl that seemed to like it. The other girls were completely boring in her opinion; all they ever wanted to do was sit on the jungle gym and play house or Barbies. Penny had Barbies, sure, what five-year-old girl didn't?

Penny simply liked her Barbies best when they were trampled underneath her My Little Pony army.

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**A/N:** There is something of a method to my madness here. You can typically expect the order to be Little Sheldon, Little Penny, adult Sheldon and/or Penny, and repeat until I run out.

marnika: I think I have one written that fits that criterion. I'll try to post it drabble after next!


	3. Chapter 3

_Present, California_

Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper knew something was amiss the instant he walked into the kitchen that morning. After exactly three seconds of contemplation, a truly egregious amount of time spent backtracking in his mental reconstruction in his opinion, he spotted the anomaly.

"Well, that's just crude," Sheldon announced to no one, while choosing from the mid-range fiber content of his spectrum of cereals.

It would not do to further interrupt his morning routine by interrogating the perpetrator. Saturday morning meant cereal with the Doctor and Rose Tyler; not getting punched in the throat by waking his neighbor before eleven a.m.

His harangue would hold and the extra time would allow him to construct a cohesive argument against his neighbor's unsolicited intrusion. In her carelessness, she could have let in burglars, or murderers, or worse still: the likes of Wil Wheaton.

And given she had presumably conducted her midnight mischief in the kitchen, it was remarkably fortuitous that Penny had not set the building on fire.

Sheldon felt curiously reluctant to retract her emergency key privileges, though his only alternative would be to issue a strike.

Penny would be taking his class again it seemed.

The wait for eleven oh one ante meridiem Pacific Standard Time was arduous and only made possible because Sheldon took the threat of potential inadvertent tracheotomy as a serious matter.

He knocked in his customary manner and gathered himself to his full height once he heard the blond woman shuffling to answer the door.

"What?"

Her lopsided ponytail and the purplish shading of the delicate skin below her eyes indicated a late night. Past experience had taught him that Penny was far less receptive to his queries when lack of sleep was a factor in their shared interactions.

Sheldon raised his complaint anyway.

"Penny, would you care to explain _why_ you deemed it necessary to commit a felony in order to bismirch my shopping list with an expletive gerund followed by the word coffee?"


	4. Chapter 4

_July 1985, East Texas _

Shelly had always been a peculiar child, but finding the five-year-old on the roof wearing her good metal colander as a helmet whilst armed with a pair of binoculars at three a.m. had Mary questioning his grasp on reality.

Enough so that the very next day, the concerned mother scheduled a meeting with the local general practitioner.

And a few days after that, she had her answer.

"Are you absolutely sure he's not a mite… touched in the head?"

"No, no, if anything, it's quite the opposite. Mrs. Cooper, your son is a _genius_."

The doctor took her through the tests and the results pointing out her son's outrageous scores.

"His brain is working in overdrive. Is he reading much?"

"Anything he can get his hands on. He just read Matilda yesterday, and I'll swear he's waiting on his own superpowers. I can't get him to go play outside, and he's never been big on playin' with the other children neither."

"I can give you assurances, but if you want a second opinion, I know someone that specializes in developmental disorders up in Houston. Honestly, though, I think you have nothing to worry about, other than finding ways to keep the boy safely engaged. Otherwise, he'll keep finding ways to sate his curiosity."

Mary vowed to do just that. She wasn't sure her heart could take another early morning surprise.


	5. Chapter 5

_June 1992_

It was the first day of her very first summer vacation, and Penny was already in trouble with Mama.

"Let go! Let go! I want to watch the Gummi Bears!" Penny yelled, attempting to keep the remote control from her older sister's reach.

"That show's for babies! We're going to watch Salute Your Shorts, and then Clarissa!"

"Those are bo-ring! Why do you get to choose?!" Penny harrumphed.

"Because I'm the oldest, and I said so!"

At this rate, she wasn't going to get to see Gummi Bears_ or_ TailSpin. And she already missed Fraggle Rock. It was totally _unfair_. So Penny did as any other six year old worth her muster. She abruptly stopped her futile struggle, sprang forward, and bit.

Penny was in trouble with Mama. Daddy thought it was funny, though.


	6. Chapter 6

_Present_

Sheldon was not sure what part of their brief interaction precipitated the door to 4B being slammed in his face.

Penny had neither acknowledged her crime nor had she issued any sort of rebuttal in her defense.

For a moment, Sheldon was stuck.

Did he knock again to reissue his petition? Did he leave?

What was the social convention in this circumstance?

The issue was handily solved when he discerned the tell-tale fluctuation in breathing pattern that accompanied acutely emotional lacrimation.

The inadequate insulation was yet another coding violation he had brought up with the landlord. However, his plaintive arguments for modern noise-cancelling foam insulation fell on deaf ears. He would have been more than willing to contract the wor-

The sniffling became louder and took on a sobbing keen.

Sheldon knew the social convention in this instance: the offer of consolation and a hot beverage.

And once Penny was back to normal, surely he would be able to modify her irrational, criminal behavior.

Twelve minutes after eleven, Sheldon once again knocked on the door to 4B, hot cocoa precisely heated to an ideal consumption temperature of one-hundred forty degrees Fahrenheit in hand.

"Go away, Sheldon!"

"I've brought you a hot beverage."

Sheldon heard a deep sigh on the opposite side of the door.

"It's open."

"You didn't even ask who it was," the genius accused, obviously appalled, "Really, Penny, we've been over this. I could have been a murderer."

The blond woman gave him what he thought constituted a 'watery smile.'

Then again, it could have simply been a look of gastrointestinal distress.


	7. Chapter 7

_January 1986, Texas  
_

Sheldon was a trying child on a good day. Though she'd never wish it, it was a relief whenever he got sick. His idiosyncrasies all but vanished, and he simply needed his mother there to take care of him and sing him Soft Kitty. It was_ normal_, and Mary thanked the Good Lord for every ounce of normal that came her way where that boy was concerned.

While checking on her little Shelly one last time for the evening, she noticed the crude drawing left on his bedside table. There was a note scribbled in purple crayon at the bottom. It was the rare times like these that Mary remembered her Shelly was still just a little boy; her heart bloomed with warmth and affection.

Giving into curiosity she picked up the doodle- a rather violent depiction of what she assumed to be Cowboys and Indians- scanning down to the bottom of the page she read:

_Dear Microbiological Invaders of my Sinuses, _

_I don't know where you are, and I don't know where you came from, but at this point in our acquaintanceship, you leave me little choice. _

_My leukocytes __**will**__ find you, and they will kill you._

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**A/N:** A nod to _Taken_. I distinctly remember being awfully congested when I wrote this. My own mother refused to sing me Soft Kitty over Skype. Devastating, truly.


	8. Chapter 8

_April 1995, Nebraska_

Penny sat slumped in her chair when Wyatt entered the kitchen that afternoon.

"Why so glum, chicakdee?"

"I don't wanna do the science fair. All the projects are boring! I wanna make a volcano!"

Penny thought volcanoes were cool. At least they exploded.

Mrs. Middaugh said no volcanoes though. Everyone in the class had to choose a project from the list.

"Give me the list and let's see if we can figure one out."

"But Daddy! There isn't anything fun on here at all," Penny complained as she relinquished the half-crumpled paper.

"Oh really? Did you see this one, slugger?"

He pointed to a bullet point under the physics section. She didn't know what physics was, but its name didn't sound fun at all.

_Does a baseball go farther when hit with a wooden or a metal bat?_

Penny's eyes lit up as she hopped from her chair and gave Wyatt a peck on the cheek.

"Thanks, Daddy!"

And then the girl shot off out the door in search of her measuring tape and ball supplies.

Her poster won second place for the whole third grade.

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**A/N:** Sorry I didn't get one up yesterday. I was exhausted, and we're getting to the ones that need more editing to be presentable. If I fiddle with the remaining ones a bit, I probably have enough for one more round of "little Sheldon, little Penny, Adults!" after this one. Then this little side project will be done.


End file.
